- How Japanese videogames differ from ones made in other regions.
- How the Japanese approach to videogame design and development is different.
- The cultural factors that influence the aforementioned topics.
To start of with I saw this interesting post on NeoGAF a while back by someone who says they worked on Bayonetta:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... t118740251
PlatinumGamesJP wrote:Being the only one in this thread that worked on Bayonetta, I don't think that God of War is for frat douches, or is "cinematic gameplay." That's just ignorant vitriol.
To me: Bayo is a mechanically-driven game, God of War is a level design-driven game. They both do what they set out to do extremely well.
In Japan, a game designer is a "planner" and spends a huge amount of time on mechanic design. We don't really have a tradition of game design-driven levels. Instead, you have the environment team making levels as essentially "stages" for the mechanics. In the US, many designers are either Level Designers doing their own scripting/engagements or have come from that background. God of War is more successful because it is easier to understand good level design than it is to understand a deep combat mechanic.
Having gotten insanely drunk with a few members of the GoW team over the years, I think that many would agree with the summary above.